50 Reasons To Love Winter

01 ST. BERNARD’S RULE
An infallible truth: everyone loves puppies. And Heidi, Timberline Lodge’s new Saint Bernard mascot, is as irresistible as they come. Luckily, at 65 pounds—and still growing—there’s plenty of fur to go around.

Forget escaping Portland’s wet season. This year, try embracing it. Let us show you how with secret saunas on Mount Hood, moonlight snowshoes, indulgent drinking chocolates, and the best place to watch a coastal storm. Plus, we’ll stoke some fireside chats with tales of Stumptown’s most legendary winters. So ready that hot toddy: the next cold front is on the way. We can’t wait.

01 ST. BERNARD’S RULE
An infallible truth: everyone loves puppies. And Heidi, Timberline Lodge’s new Saint Bernard mascot, is as irresistible as they come. Luckily, at 65 pounds—and still growing—there’s plenty of fur to go around.

02CURLING ISN’T JUSTFORCANADIANS

If you’re like us, the sport of curling briefly mesmerizes you during its Winter Olympic cameo, then sadly vanishes from your consciousness. No longer. Twice a week, Portland’s Evergreen Curling Club offers a two-hour introduction to this convivial sport on Lloyd Center’s famous ice rink for just $20 per family. Parlez-vous bonspiel? Now you do.

04YOUCANLOSETHESTAIRMASTER

Instead, pick up a book: The Portland Stairs Book. Author Laura O. Foster catalogs Portland’s collection of public staircases, often tucked away in hilly, scenic neighborhoods, like Alameda Ridge, where a five-mile jaunt can include a calf-chiseling 805 stairs.

05YOUGET TO BEAT UP ON YOURFRIENDS

And broomball gives you a legitimate excuse. Part-hockey, part-Quidditch, and all fun, broomball involves replacing skates with sneakers, sticks with brooms, and the puck with a rubber ball. Lloyd Center Ice Rink lets would-be Gretzkys live out their Slap Shot fantasy with private group matches. They’ve got the equipment; you bring the teams. (And the pain.)

06SUNLESSTANS

Even the pastiest bike messenger around town would admit that pretty much everyone looks better with a tan. Wrinkles and skin cancer? Not so much. Enter Portland Spa’s organic airbrush bronzer tan, which gives you a weeklong, all-over glow, minus the melanoma—and minus the orange Oompa-Loompa hue. 0315 SW Montgomery St; 503-222-0105

08 SLEIGHBELLS
Modern transportation proves woefully overrated when the ground is jacketed in snow and ice. Go old-fashioned with Mt Hood Adventure’s sleigh rides around the hills of Government Camp—with bracing open-air sightseeing and propulsion supplied by bell-bedecked horses. Your studded tires will seem downright lame.

07THERESOUNDINGJOY OF AN APRÈS-SKIDESSERT

Scene 1: you’re dominating the slopes at Meadows, but the sunlight is fading, and a dank chill has punctured your parka; it’s time to call it a day. Scene 2: you lounge fireside at the Alpenstube Loft in the South Lodge, a rosy hue spreading across your cheeks as you greet the Mt Hood Lava Flow—a helmet-size brownie oozing with Tillamook ice cream, chocolate sauce, and hazelnuts, served in a hot cast-iron skillet. Curtain. skihood.com

09TRYING, THENBUYING

Each January and February, Portland’s oldest ski purveyor, the Mountain Shop, puts on its Tele Tuesdays event under the lights of Skibowl: a night of telemark ski lessons, ski races, and getting first crack at the shop’s latest crop of demo skis (January 11 & February 8; mountainshop.net). Snowboarders: mark your calendar for the Burton Demo Tour Super Stop at Mt Hood Meadows January 15–17.

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